Dear Church Planter

Church planter, I want to talk to you today about numbers. Every church planter faces the temptation to measure the success of their church by numbers. The number of butts in seats, and the number of dollars given in offering. Those two numbers - butts and bucks, become the dominant numbers above all else. And let's be honest, they are pretty important stats. Without people, you don't have a church. And without finances, you can't continue to have a church. At some level these are important numbers. But while these numbers tell a story, they don't tell the WHOLE story.

Two weeks ago we had some of our highest numbers ever. It was close to our highest attendance, and it was by far our highest offering ever. And on Monday, I was feeling pretty good. We had turned a corner, we were on our way forward, ready to hire staff, ready to take our city for Jesus. And then there was this week. Below average attendance, and our lowest Sunday offering ever. And you know what? Monday I felt like sitting in a dark room and listening to Depeche Mode all day.

But then I was reminded of a different set of numbers:

• 1 - the mom who attended with her family on Mother's day and though in her 60s said it was the first time in her life she was moved to tears as God spoke to her through worship.
• 2 - the couple beginning to see God put their marriage back together.
• 3 - the number of kids who were dedicated on Mother's day as parents and families committed themselves to following Jesus together as a family.
• 4 - the family of four who have started coming recently and are finding new life.
• 5 - the family that just moved 2,500 miles to be part of the Story Church team.

So church planter, numbers are important. Attendance and offering are important. But they aren't the most important. A crowd doesn't mean lives are being changed. A great offering doesn't mean that marriages are being healed. Be faithful with what God gives you now, celebrate the numbers that matter most - and in the end, I believe those other numbers will be just fine.

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God wants me to fail

It's true. And it's something I've been learning lately but is really difficult for me.

I'm actually a bit of a perfectionist, if I'm honest. Let me give you a few examples. I don't play games for the fun of it. I play to win. If I don't win, it drives me crazy. I want to quickly figure out a better strategy and play again. Which means I can be pretty competitive at just about anything. It's not that I don't like you, it's just that I want to crush you in competition. Games like "Angry Birds" for example, drive me crazy. It's addictive to me because I must beat it. I can't let those little pigs win. A few years ago I picked up woodworking as a hobby. I've built a few things, but to be honest, it too drives me crazy. I want to build things with precision and yet my skills aren't there. I notice every imperfection, every slightly crooked cut. In school I used to do really well. I got pretty much all A's in high school and college - with the exception of science classes. No matter how much I studied, how hard I worked, I could never seem to get better than a B, and it's the only class I ever got a C in. And it drives me crazy to this day.

I tend to let failure rule. I could get 99 out of 100 right and all I can think about is the one I missed.

So here's my dilemma. I'm a church planter. That may or may not mean much to you, but a church planter is basically an entrepreneur on steroids. It's someone who is trying to start something from scratch without funding, people, buildings, or any existing structures. While there are some obvious guidelines (the Bible for example), there's no blueprint for how to plant the church that exists in my head. Which means there's lots of trial and error. We start things that don't work and so we tweak it and try again. Some of what we try completely fails.

Now back to what God has been showing me. I've noticed lately that with some things I would rather not do anything than to try it and fail. Fear of failure has paralyzed me. Uncertainty about the outcome has left me unable, or unwilling, to move forward. I want it to succeed the first time. And so I believe God has been confronting me on this, because here's the deal - the difference between those that see their dreams become a reality and those that don't is very small. In fact, it's a single step. Those that are willing to step into the unknown change the world. Those that aren't, don't.

The vision I have for my church is scary. It scares me. It really does. And yet it is the most exciting thing I have ever dreamed in my life. And God is showing me that between here and there will be lots of risk. Lots of failure. Lots of doing it the wrong way before we figure out the right way. So I'm beginning to see God as the One who invites me to fail. He calls me into the unknown, he challenges me to risk. It's a scary reality, but one I hope I can embrace more and more.

So I'm praying this for myself and for you today (especially those of you that are part of Story Church!):

2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

May you and I have the courage to fail.

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Numbers

The number 100. It's a good number. A nice, round number. It's the first number that is three digits instead of two. And up until recently it was a number we had never reached at STORYCHURCH. That is, until yesterday. Yesterday, on my birthday, we had 101 in attendance!! It was exciting, not just for me, but I think for most of the people in the church who have been with us for a while. It's feeling fuller all the time and it's fun to be part of something that is growing and picking up momentum. And I think God calls us to celebrate. We SHOULD stop and take notice and party and rejoice over cool moments like this one. I was personally on cloud nine all day yesterday and woke up today feeling about as good as any Monday morning I can remember.

Numbers are important. They tell a story - not THE story, but a story. The reason we celebrate milestones like that is because every one of those 101 people is a life that is being touched and changed as they interact with and approach Jesus. And as cool as 101 is, we keep pushing and praying for more. The reason? Again, because we want to see as many lives as possible transformed by the good news of Jesus.

But there are some dangers with numbers as well. So as we celebrate, here are a few things I caution myself and you with today:

• The DANGER OF ACCOMPLISHMENT - There is a danger with every milestone to pat ourselves on the back and say "Look at what we accomplished." I never want to be in the place where I think that any of this had anything to do with me. God chose to speak through donkeys before. The fact that He would use us is pretty awesome, but make no mistake - God is the one moving and changing people's lives, not me and not Story Church.
• The DANGER OF LEGITIMACY. I don't know what else to call it. There's a real sense in which a certain number carries with it a level of legitimacy. Like, we're for real now because we had 100 people. I never want to lose the awe over the fact that ANYONE shows up! It is a miracle to me, and what God is doing in the life of 1 is just as important as a crowd.
• The DANGER OF DECEPTION. When our numbers are down, I often feel like we failed. When they are up I feel like we are the best church in the world. I make the mistake sometimes of assuming God is at work when lots of people show up, but that he isn't when they don't. It's a lie. The reality is that I often hear the greatest stories of life change on days when we have some of our smallest attendance numbers.
• The DANGER OF COMPARISON. It's real easy to start comparing ourselves to other churches, other ministries. I sometimes find myself comparing myself as a church planter to other guys doing the same thing. God hasn't asked us to plant their church, He's asked us to be faithful with ours. No matter what God is doing somewhere else, we must be faithful to do what he calls us to do.
• The DANGER OF RESTING. Last I checked, there are still hundreds of thousands of lost people in the Triangle. Celebrating 100 is fine, but this is no time to rest. We aren't even beginning to scratch the surface of what God can do in us. People need Jesus and they are lost without Him! That truth has to continue to drive us to help people embrace the story they were meant to live.

To my friends at STORYCHURCH, my fellow story tellers - we are just getting started. As we celebrate this week the things God HAS done, don't lose sight of what He still WILL do. Pray for continual impact, for opportunities to share, and that we will hear more and more stories of God changing lives in our midst in the days ahead. I'm so blessed to be on this journey with you guys!

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On the other side

Have you ever experienced one of those situations where you are suddenly reliving something you've done before - but this time you have a completely different perspective? Last week I got to be part of a church planter's assessment in the Philadelphia area with Converge. About two and a half years ago, Kimi and I went through this process as we began to explore whether or not God was calling us to plant a church. It's an intense week to say the least. Long days, high stress. We were there with a handful of other potential church planters. The days are filled with personality profiles, psychiatric evaluations, group based problem solving, projects, preaching, interviews, presentations, and more. There's pretty much never a moment when you aren't being assessed by a group of people with clipboards.

So this last week - there I was, sitting on the outside of the circle, clipboard in hand. Haha. It's funny how that happens isn't it? It was a really great experience for me though as I was able to recall the thoughts and feelings that I had during that time. There was so much uncertainty, so much fear, so much anticipation of what might be. When we left the assessment center, we felt we had a very clear direction from God about our next steps. It ultimately led to a resignation, a cross country move, and the birth of a new church community.

Anyway, I loved the process. As brutal as being assessed was, being an assessor was maybe even more brutal. While the stress isn't there, the hours are much longer, and the weight of what we were doing in trying to determine God's call on people was pretty heavy. I'm thankful for the opportunity to affirm people and to be a small part of their journey into what I know is going to be a life changing endeavor. I value opportunities like this one and I'm committed to helping other church planters as much as I can.

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Happy Courage Day

August 1 is Courage Day. At least in my house it is. Two years ago on August 1, 2008 I climbed into a truck with all my earthly belongings and drove away from a comfortable life in southern CA to plant a church in Durham, NC. Yesterday morning I was busy setting up preparing for the weekly services of that church when my daughter came running in with a card yelling "Happy Courage Day." Apparently my wife has turned this day into a family holiday - a day to celebrate a step of courage that our family took together. How awesome is that? So yesterday was a day of celebration in our house. And every year now on August 1 we will celebrate together.

Do you know what is strange about courage though? When you take one step of courage, you want to take another. It's as if the first one is the hardest. When we are finally willing to take the "risk" to do something different, to do something extraordinary, it's as if a switch is flipped mentally and we are suddenly freed to pursue all kinds of dreams. What seemed to me to be a HUGE step two years ago seems tiny compared to the dreams I have for our church now.

So Story Church - we celebrate with you on Courage Day. God has been so good to us. Your willingness to take a risk and join us on this adventure is such a blessing to us. But - are you ready for what's next? I believe the greatest need for courage is still ahead of us. God is birthing some huge dreams in us right now and I can't wait to go there with you. The best is yet to come!

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I fired my wife

It just wasn't working out. I know she was doing the best she could, but the fact is that there was just too much on her plate. One of the hardest lessons I've been learning in the church planting process is how to balance my ministry and my family. And part of that balancing act is making sure my wife isn't trying to do more than she should do either. Yesterday it became pretty clear that her desire to help me and take some things off of my plate was resulting in nothing but stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. So I fired her. I fired her from kids ministry. I fired her from feeling the need to pick things up that don't need to be picked up, and from trying to do everything all at the same time. Maybe being fired is a bit harsh, but she thanked me in the end.

As a leader one of the most important things we do is to make sure the people around us are working/serving in life giving ways. And that happens when people are functioning from areas of strength. People don't get burned out by working too much, they get burned out by working too much doing the wrong things. As a young church of six months, we are just now starting to really understand that. In the beginning it's basically "If you have a pulse, then we need you serving here." But now, as we are growing and getting more volunteers, we can start getting people into areas that are life giving for them. It's not easy, but it's so important for the health of everyone involved, and for the health of our church.

So Kimi was one of the first victims. She was fired from a job that was life sucking rather than life giving for her. And she was reassigned to the things that give her life - being a wife, being a mom, and when she has time - leading and encouraging women to embrace the story they were meant to live.

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Story Church - 4 months old

I've realized that if I don't stop to reflect every so often on the life of our young church it would be easy to forget the things we are learning and seeing take place. So here's a quick update on what we're seeing four months in.

• People keep showing up. That's a win. I know it doesn't sound like much but when you start something like this you aren't sure that's going to happen.
• New people keep showing up. So not only are people coming back, but we continue to see new faces just about every week.
• Community is happening. This is one of the highlights for me. I keep hearing about families that are hanging out, couples getting coffee together or playing tennis, play dates happening, and friendships forming. It's exciting to see people forming relationships as a result of Story Church.
• Continued opportunity to serve our school. The more we develop a relationship with the school where we meet, the more opportunities we are having to be a blessing there. We've had people volunteer at book fairs, in classrooms, and to proctor tests. We've brought breakfast to the teachers on multiple occasions. We've been able to help out with school wide events. And at the end of the year I get the opportunity to speak at the 5th grade graduation.
• Community involvement. A key part of our vision is to be a blessing to our community. So it's been pretty neat to have been able to sponsor a local 5-6 year old soccer team, to give a single mom a fun day with her kids, and to bless some random people with cold water or a free car wash.
• Global involvement. In our short time together as a church we've built a well in Central Africa for a community that previously didn't have access to clean water, and then when the earthquake in Haiti hit in our second week as a church, we ended up giving away our entire offering toward relief - more than $1,600.
• Learning together. It's been so cool to be able to lead our people through the Scriptures. Many in our church are either unfamiliar with the Bible or have been away from any kind of church for many years. Together we are learning and growing and trying to understand what it means to be active players in the Story God is writing in the world.
• Firsts. We've had a number of firsts now. Our first service, our first Easter, our first time of communion, and this last week - our first child dedication.

We continue to face our share of challenges as well:

• As we grow, the need to organize ourselves and multiply leaders is an ongoing issue.
• Keeping the vision simple. It's so tempting to add layers to what we're doing. It's also easier to do that. The harder thing is to stay true to the vision and keep it simple.
• Of course there are financial challenges as well. We have some margin in place that is keeping us going for now, but to grow this church and pursue the vision we have we will need to grow in our finances as well. The church will need to be self-sustaining within a year or so, and we aren't there yet. We're paying the rent, but we can't afford any salaries for any staff at this point - myself included.

Anyway, lots to celebrate in these few months. I'm really glad I sat down and typed this up. As a leader, it's really easy for me to think about the future and to be a little bit bummed that we aren't yet what I see in my mind. But we have accomplished so much already. And in the grand scheme of things, we are still brand new!! 4 months in and we're just getting going!

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One of those days

Well, today was the day I always heard about. It's the day when everything that could have gone wrong in church planting did. I started off the day tired already. It was a late night, getting back late from a long drive from Virginia. One of the Sunday morning rituals for me is to move the van out of the driveway to make room for the truck that comes in and pulls our trailer out of the garage. And so it began - a dead car battery. We were able to get it jumped pretty quickly, so disaster averted. Once we got to the school, things continued to go south. We had sound issues, a broken guitar that led to a weird mic situation and feedback. Then it was the computer's turn to go haywire. For some reason all of a sudden the display on my computer went crazy. Every slide for every song and every announcement suddenly went crazy and resized itself, including changing the size of the font. With a mad scramble we managed to fix it. But then about 5 minutes before we started I realized that one of our songs was wrong. We were playing "Nothing but the blood" - but not the old version, but the newer Matt Redman version. In other words, wrong lyrics, wrong order. We scrambled to type it in as fast as possible.

It was a wild morning. And I suppose we should have expected it. It was the first time we celebrated communion as a church. It turned out to be a very powerful morning. A morning that I will never forget. We experienced something this morning that I haven't seen yet. Despite all of the things that went wrong - the presence of God was powerful. As Alastair Vance tweeted - "Egg on your face, devil."

As we were cleaning up, one of our key leaders said "It's over! Nothing can go wrong." We had a good laugh. And then we noticed that this week's message failed to record. Geez.

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Up the Middle

I have a friend named Matt. He wrote a book called Up the Middle Church. Though Matt's a diehard baseball fan, for some reason he wrote a book with a football analogy - but we'll forgive him for that. Anyway, here's the deal. Planting a church is hard. I hear stories about churches that just explode in growth, and I learn about leaders who seem to never make mistakes and everything they touch seems to turn to gold. But you know why we hear those stories? Because they are the exception - not the rule. Stories get told about things that stand out, that are different than the norm. The fact is that the norm for church planting is one yard at a time, up the middle. Most of us experience a grueling, tough battle where we gain a little bit of ground, then get sacked for a loss, then we get back up and gain it back and hopefully make some first downs along the way.

Leading up to Easter, we did a huge marketing campaign as a church. We spent a pretty good amount of money to do a huge mailer to our community, we hung door hangers on close to 2,000 homes, we put out yard signs all over the place, and we did Facebook ads like nobody's business. And you know what happened on Easter? We had two less people than the week before Easter. Sack.

I was in a coaching session yesterday with about six or seven other church planters, led by the same friend Matt who wrote the book. Everyone was sharing about the last month's "wins" - the things that went well. Many of the guys had record attendances on Easter - 250, 350, etc. When I shared about our Easter I'll be honest, it felt a little like we had failed. But here's where talking to other people is so important. One guy shared that two years running they went down in attendance on Easter, and this year they finally had a good one. You know what that little admission does for someone like me? It reminds me that this church planting thing is an "Up the Middle" process. The gains we are making in seeing individual lives being changed is amazing. I'm learning to celebrate those one yard gains more and more all the time.

I'm thankful today for community. For guys that are out there on the field with me and struggling with me for one yard, two yards, a first down. Make no mistake, we're winning the game.

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Six weeks in

This last Sunday was our sixth Sunday together at Story Church. Today seems like a good day to give a quick recap and assessment of where we're at as a church. The reality is that we are beginning to see the dust settle from our launch. It's been an incredible beginning - but it's just a beginning. Our first six weeks were kind of strange. We launched with a series called GROW. But in week 2 the earthquake in Haiti hit, and we set our series aside to tackle head on the issue of suffering. We had our biggest offering that day - which we gave away to Haiti relief. Week 4 was snowed out, so our original 4-week series ended up lasting six.

Since our launch, we continue to see new faces each week. People continue to hear about us from facebook, from yard signs, and now we're beginning to see people get invited by their friends. As a pastor, I'm most excited about seeing people get connected relationally, and beginning to get plugged in through serving.

One of the important lessons I've learned in these first few weeks is to define the "win" and keep that in front of me all the time. For us, a "win" is seeing people who don't normally go to church coming and getting involved. It's seeing people ask questions, take steps to further their relationship with Jesus, and seek healing and wholeness in their relationships. And we're seeing tons of those things.

As a confession, it's real easy to get caught up in numbers like attendance and offering - two realities a church needs in order to sustain life. But to keep the "win" in focus has been huge for me. I know that those other things will take care of themselves if we stay true to the vision God has for us as a church - to help people embrace the story they are meant to live.

If you are a Story Church attender - what have been some of the highlights for you so far?

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GROW

We're in the middle of a series called GROW at STORYCHURCH. In week one, we talked about a principle that Andy Stanley describes in his recent book "The Principle of the Path." It basically says "Direction, not intentions, determines your destination." In that first week, we set a vision for our church and the direction we want to go. We described what we believe is the abundant life Jesus is offering in the kingdom - available here and now, not just someday when we die.

This week, we tackled what I think is one of the most important things to consider if one wants to grow. That is, where you are planted matters more than anything else. Or, as we said - SOIL MATTERS. We talked about the importance of learning from someone else who is already experiencing the abundant life of Jesus. Our environment, the people around us really have a huge impact on what we become. So we looked at a guy named Lot from the book of Genesis - and his decision to plant himself in a place that ultimately led to him losing everything.

Now that we're going strong every week, it's pretty fun to be able to build from one week to the next. I'm looking forward to jumping in to some super practical stuff this next week.

Overall, our third service went really well. We're beginning to realize that we need more hands on deck - especially early in the morning for setup. We're starting to get a system down but it's still taking way too long. And that could easily be fixed with a few extra hands.

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Week 2

Another amazing morning at Story Church. I seriously can't believe I get to do this. We did a pretty bold thing this week. In only our 2nd week as a church, we decided to call an audible this week and divert from our series "GROW" and tackle head on the suffering we are seeing in Haiti. I spent all week preparing for GROW part 2, but by Friday night I became convinced that we couldn't ignore what was happening in the world. I couldn't say "Hey, let's pray about Haiti, let's take a special offering, ok now back to doing our thing." So instead we talked about suffering and how we understand that in a world where God is supposed to be in control.

We acknowledged the question many of us were asking - "Where is God?" In the end, Scripture is so clear that God is with the suffering. He's on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, and the have-nots. As a church planter, I think I will look back to this week as a pivotal one for us. It was a week where we took a bit of a risk in order to make a pretty serious statement about our values and our vision as a church. Not many church plants I know have started by changing their plans in week two and addressing an issue like suffering. And no church I know has given away 100% of their offering like we did this week. I'm so proud of our church, the way they stepped up, caught a vision for proclaiming God's heart for the world, and responded with radical generosity. This day will stay with us for a long time.

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STORYCHURCH Launch

Yesterday, after four and a half years of dreaming, we finally launched Story Church. It was one of the greatest days of my life - to see a vision become reality. I was so proud of our team and so amazed at our God. There are seriously so many highlights, but I'll try and name some of them here.

- Our team did a tremendous job. I am amazed at the people God has assembled here at Story Church and the gifts they have.
- Final attendance was 96 people. More than double what we had at our preview services.
- We learned a lot about what works in getting our name out around here. We did a smaller (5,000 piece) direct mail campaign, yard signs, and facebook ads. By far the facebook ads were the most successful in getting people to our site, and ultimately to the service. The combination of yard signs and mailer did well (when people got a mailer and saw a sign). However, for other church planters - for the cost, I can't recommend Facebook ads more highly.
- Our band, led by @alastairvance did amazingly well.
- Our setup was different this time. We added a significant amount of pipe and drape, and moved our sound board and media off to the side as opposed to the back center of the room. The pipe and drape really gave the elementary school gym a much better feel and created an intimate space. It's a little more labor intensive than I like in a mobile church environment, but I'm sure we can develop a better system for that.
- We had a new sound board and a new projector - both of which worked out really well.
- Just saying, there can't be a better spread of food anywhere in the kingdom of God.
- Our kids ministry rocked it - I heard nothing but great things from parents.
- When I finally got up to preach, I was pretty amped up but also quite emotional. It took a few deep breaths and a prayer to get me calmed down enough to speak my heart. In the end, I think it went really well.
- We gave away John Eldredge's book Epic to everyone there - a great book for a church named STORYCHURCH!
- Overheard "Is this going to be every week?!"
- Met a girl who recently moved here from AZ. Found out she went to the church of my former youth pastor, mentor and friend Linn Winters at Cornerstone Chandler. We were all amazed at the connection.
- Met several young couples looking for a church home. Lots of PhD students. Not sure I'm smart enough for this crowd.
- Got so many emails, texts, and twitter messages from friends and other pastors that encouraged the heck out of me.
- Jesus was lifted high!
- We get to do it all over again in 6 days!!

You can hear this week's message here, and see more pictures here.

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Second Preview

This last Sunday was the second preview service for Story Church. Here are my thoughts about what went well and what we learned:

1. Setup went much smoother - everyone was assigned a job, and there was a clear priority list in terms of what needed to get done first.
2. Our new screen is approximately 1,000 times better than the original. It is no longer a jumbotron and we were able to project straight ahead to the stage.
3. Tablecloths made a huge difference! Made our hospitality and check-in areas look sharp.
4. The first preview was too bright on stage, so this time we turned out the lights. It was too dark. We need to invest in some lighting.
5. We are still borrowing from a couple of different sound systems. This makes setup a bit confusing and cumbersome. We need to get our own stuff soon.
6. The flow of the service worked out much better this time.
7. We intentionally had a woman on the stage! We are no longer chauvinists.
8. Our media looked good, we just need to work on the timing of changing slides.
9. We need more signage - outside, inside, hallways, registration areas, everywhere.
10. We did a better job with the offering this time - we didn't belabor it, and we had a cool new box for the offering specifically. It is no longer on the food table :).
11. Our team needs to model worship a little bit more. At times there was some awkwardness because it seemed like people didn't know when to stand or sing or whatever.
12. Alastair still has an accent. Haha. We're thinking about using subtitles.
13. The teardown went fast. We were out by 8pm (service ended at 7:15 - right on time!).
14. We forgot to bring our connection cards and kids registration cards. That made for a panicked 15 minutes until my wife drove home and found them. That's probably one of the most important elements to what we're doing - so slight oversight there!
15. My sermon felt rushed and crammed. I'm out of practice with this preaching stuff and I need to relearn how to simplify.
16. We need a second parking lot person.
17. We need a countdown clock or something like it - it didn't seem like people really believed we were starting when we did.
18. We should probably mention the connection cards more than once.
19. Facebook ads really work! I think we need to do them more.
20. I can't wait for November 15. This is too much fun.

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100 Days

Today marks the 100 day countdown to the launch of Story Church. Depending on your perspective, that can either seem like a long time, or not much time at all. For me, it's more of the latter. A couple of months ago the plan was to launch on September 13. I had a hard time giving up that date and pushing things back, but I am so glad that we did. I can't even imagine what things would have been like if we had tried to push it. We simply wouldn't have made it.

So what is there to do in the next 100 days? Here are some of the things we are trying to accomplish in no specific order:

1) 3 preview services - Oct. 11, Nov. 15, and Dec. 20. The previews serve two purposes - to allow people to see who we are and maybe get excited enough about our vision to join our team. And secondly, to let us practice and try and figure this thing out.

2) To grow our team to about 35 adults. It just takes a certain amount of people to be able to hold babies, serve people, etc.

3) To raise money. We are trying to be good steward of what we have, but it simply costs money to start a church that meets in a rented facility. There is sound equipment, kids ministry stuff, food, advertising, rent, insurance, graphic design and more to pay for.

4) Serve our community. We are trying to build into the DNA of Story Church that we are going to be a church that not only exists within our community but that we play a vital role in it. Our desire is to be a generous, life-giving church. That doesn't happen on Sunday mornings alone. So we are beginning to find our place in Durham and the ways that we can live out the gospel to all people.

I'm so excited for these next 100 days. They are vitally important days. They are days of faith, of great dependence upon God. Pray for us and for Story Church. And if you are in the Triangle area, let us share our heart and vision with you. Come out and visit us on October 11 for our next preview. All of the details are on our website here.

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First Preview

Now that we're two days removed from our first preview, here are some things that we learned as a team:

1) We knew we had a lot to setup, but we didn't really have tasks assigned. So we ended up looking like a 5 year old soccer team - all of us together running around chasing the same problem.

2) Flexibility is the name of the game in a portable environment. When we showed up, there were 200 chairs set up and the back wall of the gym was open into the cafeteria. While we ended up getting it closed and most of the chairs put away, right from the start we had obstacles we weren't planning on.

3) We needed start times for each of our jobs. What time should we be at the door greeting? What time should the band be done? What time should kids registration start? etc.

4) Our screen is too big. Seriously a 9' x 12' screen is cool, but way too big for our setting. Because of the size we had very little flexibility on our setup and it had to be way over on the side which caused people to look sideways to see it.

5) Transitions. They need work.

6) Borrowing from three different sound systems is confusing. It made for a much more complex setup and teardown. "Is this mine, or yours, or theirs?" Next time we'll try and piece enough together to use just our own stuff.

7) Connection Cards are awkward. We didn't really know when in the service to do them, and it just felt weird.

8) Money. In our effort to not talk much about money and not make an offering a big deal - we ended up making it a big deal. haha.

9) Our band rocked. Too bad they may be all different next time!

10) This is stinking fun. I could give my life to this kind of thing.

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Plans vs. Vision

"Plans change, vision stays the same." I listened recently to another Andy Stanley leadership podcast that hit me at just the right time. I asked on twitter last week for people to be praying for me as I had some pretty big decisions to make. I feel like God really answered many of those prayers by allowing me to hear this particular podcast. In it, Andy talks about how many of us fail to realize that our particular vision is not the same as our particular plan. I know for me this church planting adventure that I am on is one where my plans and the vision God has given me sometimes get confused. I think this is common for many of us. Maybe your vision is about a particular ministry, or about your business, or even a particular vision for your family. Our plans become so important to us. After all, we pray about them, we align our finances around them, we follow our plan to the greatest detail. But which is more important - the plan (how I will accomplish the vision), or the vision itself? Sometimes we have to be willing to be flexible with our plans. Plans change, vision stays the same.

In my context my church planting plan has had some significant changes along the way. The vision has continued to stay the same. Our vision is to plant a life-giving church that encourages people to embrace the story they were meant to live. It's a vision that calls people out of boredom and into the life God intended for them. And yet my plan has often gotten confused with that vision. Originally my plan was that this would happen primarily in downtown Durham. When God began pointing me closer to the Grove Park area, I struggled with that. How could we change our focus like that? Oh yeah - downtown isn't the vision, a life-giving church is the vision. More recently I've wrestled with a new change of plans. For a year I've been planning on launching Story Church on September 13, 2009. And yet recently, I've come to terms with the fact that we aren't ready to launch. At first this was a devastating reality for me. How can I change my launch date?? Oh yeah, September 13 isn't the vision - a healthy, life-giving church is the vision. September 13 is a plan. And it can change without affecting the vision.

How about you? What's the vision you have for your life, your career, your family, your marriage? Is that vision married to a particular plan, or is the plan flexible? If we don't learn to flex the plan, our vision can die with a bad plan. Good vision thrives at the right time with the right plan - but it's not the same as our plan. We die for vision, but not for our plans.

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Visioneering

I'm reading Andy Stanley's great book Visioneering right now and it is really hitting me at just the right time. As we get further along in this church planting adventure, and closer to our launch, I feel more and more inadequate and less and less prepared. I just thought I'd post a few of my favorite nuggets from the first few chapters so far and let you think about them.

"Vision is always accompanied by strong emotion. And the clearer the vision, the stronger the emotion" (10).

"God ordained visions are always too big for us to handle" (42).

"You are not responsible for figuring out how to pull off God's vision for your life. You are responsible to do what you know to do, what you can do. And then you must wait" (56-57).

"If it is just a good idea, you have to make it happen. When God gives you a vision, there's a sense in which you stand back and watch it happen" (57).

"I think it is safe to assume that most Christians are not attempting anything that requires God's intervention" (71).

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Durham is cool

I've lived in Durham for about 7 months now. It's kind of hard to believe. But I came from Southern California, the place on the cutting edge, the place where everything is always happening. And yet, I've found that in a few short months here in Durham, NC that maybe SoCal isn't quite as cutting edge as it wants to be. I guess what I mean by that is that there is a lot going on here, way more than I expected there to be. Let me give some examples. In these seven months I have had the opportunity to see Donald Miller (author, Blue Like Jazz), Shane Claiborne (author, Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President), Mark Driscoll (church planter, author - Vintage Jesus), and this week Ed Stetzer (church planting guru, author Planting Missional Churches). And all of this has been within 15-20 minutes of my house. I guess it comes with living in a University saturated area. But it's awesome.

As a church planter, it's pretty cool that this area is booming with those on the cutting edge of planting churches. There's a monthly forum about 10 minutes from my house led by Summit Church called SendRDU. This is where this week I got to hear Ed Stetzer talk about the pitfalls of church planting. Oh yeah, and every one of these things I've been able to do so far have been free. Can't beat that.

In June there will be a national conference for church planters and those interested in moving the church forward. Where is it? Oh, it's in Durham. So while hundreds of people will fly in from all over the country, I'll sleep in my bed, get up late, and drive to the conference.

All this to say - SoCal is still cool. And while it can boast of Disneyland and the beach and In-N-Out, at least I have trees and seasons and Shane Claiborne. It's a pretty good trade.

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Big Decision

I'm really wrestling lately with a decision that I have to make regarding Story Church. At some point, we have to pick a location - a spot that we will sort of set up shop and seek to impact the area around us. I'm torn though. I love the downtown area, and the proximity to Duke and the opportunity that gives us for ministry to students. And yet, it feels like the area that we live is ripe for a church plant. There are several newer housing developments, very few churches, and no one who is really doing anything new. I know that no matter where we end up, God will use us. My heart and my vision has been to have an influence on the city, and on the campus. But I'm beginning to wonder if that's a bigger vision than where we are at right now. And I wonder if that is my vision, or if it's God's. So I'm going to be seeking quite a bit of wisdom in the coming weeks. Please pray for me and for Story Church as we seek God's direction for us. And help me out with something - how do you make big decisions? How does God speak to you? Do you do anything differently when you are intentionally seeking His voice for something specific?

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